Late At Night
by isobeljones2000
Summary: Another yawn. The fourth in as many minutes, Katherine notices. Once again, Nick stifles it with a weary hand, before turning his attention back to a half-built prototype, plans and blueprints scattered around his workspace. It's another late night at Calimov. Nick/Katherine


_I have just watched the Eve Christmas special (wasn't it awesome?!) and suddenly found a huge urge to write some Nick/Katherine, so here goes!_

 _'Imagine person A staying up all night to finish a project and person B is giving a hand. Person A ends up falling asleep with the project half done, and person B eventually finishes it for person A.'_

Another yawn. The fourth in as many minutes, Katherine notices. Once again, Nick stifles it with a weary hand, before turning his attention back to a half-built prototype, plans and blueprints scattered around his workspace. It's another late night at Calimov.

Just minutes ago, Katherine had informed Nick calmly that he wouldn't be leaving until his project was complete.

To be perfectly honest, she's slightly regretting her order now. Normally, she doesn't miss much, and she didn't miss the look that Nick shot her when she informed him that he would be staying as long as it took to finish it off. Of course, she's got a thick skin, and usually ignores everyone else's opinions, but there's something about Nick's expression that can just bite into her, just a little bit. Just enough to make her care. It's extremely irritating.

"That blueprint is supposed to be that way up," she comments airily as she floats past his desk for the third or fourth time, looking over his shoulder in a way that she is perfectly aware that he hates.

"I've got it, thanks," mutters Nick with clenched teeth, his eyes firmly focused on the desk, subtly moving the blueprint so it's the right way up.

"Oh I know you have, Nick," she assures him coolly, registering the surreptitious motion with slight amusement.

"Haven't you got some work to finish, Katherine? Since apparently I need to finish this 'extremely urgent' project tonight, instead of going home to my family," almost spits the scientist, fury only barely held back in his tone.

 _But it's less lonely having you_ _here_ _staying late, Nick._ The words run through her mind without her even thinking about them, and Katherine shakes her head, angry at herself for this treacherous thought. She almost wishes she could send him home now, to admit defeat, not that Katherine Calvin has ever, or will ever probably admit defeat in her life. Anything would be better than the stony silence of the office. Even when she's left here late, all alone with nothing to really go back home to, the silence isn't as tense as this.

"Oh, the only person who's got work to finish around here is you, Nick." Katherine regards the half-finished prototype balefully. "By the way, the three central anodes need to be much further down, by a few centimetres I'd say."

Finally Nick turns to meet her eyes, looking up from where he's seated in his desk chair, surrounded by papers and components. "Did you actually want something, Katherine?"

"I'm helping you, isn't it obvious?" Katherine shoots back, affronted. "Though it's really not that difficult a task. It's only a fairly basic reconstruction of one of Mary Douglas' new findings."

"If it's not that difficult, why can't it be done tomorrow morning?" Nick wonders sharply.

Katherine has no real answer to that. Her own stubbornness is probably the most truthful reply; she hadn't intended to keep Nick back in work for so long, but she tends to over-exaggerate in the heat of the moment - leading to employees still working at nearly ten at night.

Nick still has that reproachful glare directed at her, his hazel eyes annoyed and tired. "Now if you don't mind, I'd rather like to see my son at some point this evening, so I suppose I had better finish working, hadn't I?"

Katherine nods, trying to keep her cynical expression from sliding off her face, though really she just wants to let him go. She's fed up of him moping around, and she supposes the project isn't that urgent. But a Calvin always sticks to her word, unfortunately for Nick. "You - do that," she ordered weakly, turning on her heel and heading back to her dimly lost office, leaving the scientist working at his desk.

When she turns back from staring blankly at her computer, only minutes later, she hears a light snore from the desk, and looks around in exasperation to see Nick Clarke, fast asleep with his head on the smooth wooden surface.

As she storms over to his desk, poised to strike a furious blow to his career, she falters. Her hand freezes on its passage to shake her employee's shoulder, to demand that he wake up right now, or be fired. That's her usual response, but something stops her. Maybe it's the exhausted posture of the scientist's tired figure, or maybe it's the fact that he has been working non-stop all week, or maybe even it's the rare expression of peace on Nick's face as he rests, his eyes closed. She's never really seen him like this; he's always stressed and on the go, or panicking about some family member or other. Somehow she wishes she could see him so relaxed with her, smiling and talking naturally like she's occasionally seen him do with other employees, instead of the businesslike, clipped, careful tone he uses when around her.

He looks younger when he's sleeping, somehow. Less stressed. Less fatherlike. Just - Nick. She realises she doesn't really know who that person is.

So instead of delivering a harsh wake-up-call to her employee, unable to quite believe she's doing it, Katherine slides into the abandoned seat next to him and pulls the prototype along the desk towards her, along with a wad of the blueprints. Scanning over them, they look relatively simple, and Katherine starts to slot the remaining components into place with neatly manicured fingers. She finds she's actually enjoying the work after silent moments fixing the prototype. Being a manager means a lot of ordering people around and shouting, but not so much of just working on technology any more. She has to leave that to the technicians. Sometimes she misses it.

It takes a while, but Katherine perseveres, continuing to slot components into place and trying to be as quiet as possible as she uses a screwdriver to attach the various outer parts. She's still not entirely sure what it is, but they can worry about that tomorrow.

Finally, she's finished. Hurriedly, slightly disbelievingly, she gets up and pretends she was never sitting there, sliding the finished prototype over to Nick's side of the desk again. She's careful not to wake him with the motion. Then, after moving away from his desk, she barks out his name into the empty office. "Nick!"

The scientist jolts awake, a muted exclamation coming from his parted lips as he looks blindly around, trying to make sense of his surroundings. "Katherine," he says after a wild look around, registering her presence next to him.

"You're finished. You can go home," she says shortly, and walks away, leaving a confused looking Nick staring dumbly at the now-completed prototype in front of him, wondering when he had actually finished that.

Even a Calvin must sometimes do strange things late at night...


End file.
